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Farewell Collins Mechanical Filters

For many radio amateurs, it’s the end of an era: Rockwell Collins, which designed and manufactured mechanical filters for more than two generations of hams, has discontinued the filters’ production.

The company posted on its website: “Over the past several years, we have seen a dramatic reduction in demand for narrowband analog filters. Due to this and other economic reasons, Filter Products will be discontinuing its mechanical filter products in the near future.”

The company acknowledged that the filters have since been eclipsed by digital signal processing, and this was a significant factor in its decision. Highly popular mainstays for many hams, the mechanical filters were valued for being able to achieve bandwidths of between 0.05 percent and 5 percent, with input and output transducers converting the electrical signal to and from mechanical vibrations. Rockwell Collins has not yet announced a date for the final production run.